Event Marketer released the winners of the 2022 Experience Design and Technology Awards.

Best Virtual Event or Livestream

Campaign: Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Launch

Client: Virgin Galactic

Partners: productionglue (A TAIT Company), Lightswitch, Video West, Nico Network, NCompass

For the 22nd test flight of the Virgin spaceship Unity, the first flight with a full crew in the cabin, including the company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic needed an engaging experience worthy of this high-profile moment for in-person attendees and virtual viewers of the live broadcast, including global media, dignitaries, investors, future astronauts and students. Special guests Stephen Colbert, a Virgin Galactic engineer, a space researcher, and NASA astronaut Chris Hadfield served as hosts and commentators, and local school children lined a “hero’s walk” to send off the Unity 22 crew.

Footage of the launch was captured by a MARS Scientific telescopic tracking system from more than 14 miles away as Unity “ascended toward the stars.” While the telescopes captured detailed footage of the vehicle’s ascent to space, cameras on and inside the spaceship brought the audience along with the Unity 22 crew, “allowing them to feel the vastness of space as they looked back upon Earth,” the team described.

The “live-action sports”-style production leveraged 14 ground cameras, as well as TV trucks. Virgin Galactic provided real-time telemetry and data from mission control that was mixed with live video via broadcast-level, instant replay technology. More than 12.5 million ultimately tuned in with an additional 4 million viewers tuning in via third-party broadcasters. Out of this world.

thought leadership